Summary:
In the film, 28 Days, Sandra Bullock plays a newspaper columnist named Gwen Cummings. Clearly, Gwen has a serious drug addiction as shown through the beginning scenes of her drunken nights with her addicted boyfriend, Jasper. When the tipping point occurred in Gwen’s life, she had completely ruined her sister’s wedding. Gwen showed up late, failed to look appropriate (messy appearance), made a horrible sister of the bride speech, and knocked over the wedding cake. Throughout the wedding, Gwen continuously drank. She then stole a limousine to find a replacement cake and crashed into a house. Gwen is given a decision between a twenty-eight day prison sentence or a rehabilitation center. She chooses the rehabilitation center in extreme denial of her addiction. Gwen proves to be extremely resistant to treatment. On a visitation day, Jasper gives her medication and they run away to get a high. When Gwen returns to the rehabilitation center, she is clearly intoxicated. She is informed the following day (when she is cognitively able), that she is being kicked out of the rehabilitation
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Gwen starts to experience withdraw symptoms. She gets to such a low point the she falls out of her window to recover a pill and injures her ankle. The following morning, she is given a second chance. This is when Gwen starts to participate and make friends within the program. Things don’t necessarily get easier for Gwen however; she continuously has flashbacks to when her mother died of an overdose. She also continuously gets pressured to drink from her boyfriend, Jasper. She eventually just breaks up with him, learning that he is not going to be helpful to her sobriety. Her roommate, Andrea also commits suicide. Gwen also has to deal with a whole new life as a sober woman. She has to relearn coping mechanisms and work diligently on her own
Additionally, although proclaiming his love for her, Lester becomes a negative influence on Kathy. Under the false sense of security he provides, Kathy, a recovering alcoholic, allows herself to start drinking again after an abstinence of three ye...
28 Days exhibited numerous ethical and legal issues. Ethically, Gwen and Lily should never have grown up in a hostile environment. They grew up with their mother, who most likely also had Alcohol Use Disorder. Throughout the movie, Gwen has flashbacks of their mother stumbling, dancing and using a coffee table as a sled, as the girls almost slide right into oncoming traffic. Children who grow up with parents that have Alcohol Use Disorder are at a higher risk for drinking problems, substance abuse, emotional, behavioral and personality problems (Drapkin, Eddie, Buffington, & McCrady, 2015). Gwen falls easily into this category.
She first lies to doctors about substance abuse landing her support groups for substance abuse and a program to help her stay sober. This isn’t productive for Daphne and she grew tired of being bunched up with the addicts. She decides to come clean, of conscious and recant her exaggerated tales of alcohol and drug abuse before she was admitted into psychiatric care. This is however not seen as her coming clean, she isn’t better, the staff and patients believe the opposite in fact. Her pleas of sobriety and confessions of previous lies are seen as an addict denying their problem and a symptom of her substance abuse; incapable of admitting to herself and others that she has a
Nevertheless, her attempts are futile as he dismisses her once more, putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progresses, she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous, so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars.
With her longing for something more than what she gets on an everyday basis, her growing fondness of Lenny right up to her first drink and drug use, and the symbolism of the blue and green, it is evident that she will not be able to overcome her temptations and be drawn back into the world of drugs and alcohol, only more intense this time. She has already started doing drugs, drinking, and smoking again. She has seen the sober life for way too long and she isn't happy with it. Her cigarette smoking and drinking, although not illegal, will still conform do her downfall. "When the glass was finished she would pour another. When the bottle was empty, she would buy another"(107).
hurt and she falls because of the wounded hand and Winston helps her up. But the
Gwen exhibits several signs of the alcohol use disorder. In a beginning scene, she has beer bottles all over her apartment. On the morning of her sister’s wedding, she chases down a taxi while holding a beer bottle and continues to drink the bottle in the taxi. Furthermore, due to her intoxication at the wedding she makes a toast she cannot recall, ruins her sister’s wedding cake, and drives
It is clear that in their marriage, her husband makes her decisions on her behalf and she is expected to simply follow blindly. Their relationship parallels the roles that men and women play in marriage when the story was written. The narrator’s feelings of powerlessness and submissive attitudes toward her husband are revealing of the negative effects of gender roles. John’s decision to treat the narrator with rest cure leads to the narrator experiencing an intense feeling of isolation, and this isolation caused her mental decline. Her descent into madness is at its peak when she grows tears the wallpaper and is convinced that “[she’s] got out at last, in spite of [John] and Jennie… and [they] can’t put her back!”
As the movie goes on, Gwen exhibits signs of withdrawal from alcohol. She continues to avoid people in group therapies, meetings and activities. Gwen, at this time of the movie, is just trying to continue going and survive her symptoms of withdrawal. Eventually, Gwen makes a desperate attempt to cure her withdrawal symptoms and take the pills that she threw
Justin asks Gwen to revisit a hurtful event from her past. Gwen turns her head then rolls her eyes. She then responds to say “not again !” Justin asks again . Gwen then sighs as if there is a serious issue with what is being asked. Justin says” I guess not confronting your problems is the new therapy.” Gwen says “you are so ignorant and you act like a child.”
Lizzie finds out her bravery through all the things she and Connor go through trying to make sure she can find a way to see and be with Connor. But the doctor tells her she's going to need surgery
Her eyes were heavy, her body weak. As she crawled into the bathroom two feet away, Abby felt her body slowly succumbing to the numbness. All of her pain would be gone in less than 10 minutes, so why would she want to turn back? What about the senior trip Abby had planned with her best friend? What about the chair at the dinner table that would now be vacant? A couple of hours later Abby’s family came home from her little sister’s soccer game. Little did they know what they would find as they approached the top of the stairs. Her little sister, Ali, stood still as she looked down at her feet. There on the cold floor lay her big sister, her role model, and her super hero. Ali was crushed when she saw the pill bottle in her hand and the pale color of her skin. Her mom fell to her knees screaming and crying, wondering where she
Gwen’s drug and alcohol affected many aspects of her life. Her social life was ruined. Her sister wanted nothing to do with her. Gwen ruined her wedding and was showing up drunk and late. The only kind of friend she had was Jasper, her boyfriend, and he was the same if not worse than she was. It is not good for addicts to be around people who are worse than them, don’t want to get better, and don’t think the have a problem. No one at rehab wanted to be around her she was rude and was lashing out against people. Her intelligence went out the window, literally. We see that when she jumps out of the window to get her pills and when she drives and crashes the limo, which got her into rehab in the first place. Her emotional state was bad, she was having hallucinations and was having mood swings. Gwen's physical state was just as bad, she was shaky and having bad withdrawals.
Her roommate, a seventeen-year-old girl named Andrea, is a recovering heroin addict who also has a history of self-harm. At first, Gwen refuses to have anything to do with the treatment programs and denies that she even has a drinking problem. One day, Jasper shows up to visit and slips her a bottle of Vicodin. The two then proceed to sneak away from the rehab facility for a day of partying. That night, Gwen returns clearly intoxicated and makes her way to her bedroom. The next day, she is confronted by Cornell, the rehab facility director and fellow recovering addict. He informs her that she has broken the rules of the facility and is being kicked out and sent to jail. Gwen becomes infuriated and continues to deny that she has a problem with alcohol and states that she can quit if she had the desire. She storms out of Cornell’s office and off to her room where she rummages through a tissue box to find her stash of pills. Gwen proceeds to take a pill of Vicodin, but spits it back out before swallowing. She then tosses the remaining pills in the bottle out the window proving to herself she does not need
From being secluded in the room for three months, heroine starts slowly to realize that her depression is caused by oppression of her husband. She recognizes that she gets "unreasonably angry with John sometimes" and later wishes he would get his own room (573).